Monday, March 26, 2012

For readers, it comes as no secret I'm a fan of the NHL draft. Actually, I'm a fan of most all of sports drafts - NFL, NBA, MLB (a little less of a mystery after Michael Lewis' Moneyball), CHL, yadda, yadda, yadda (I could go on!).

This article is a draft of sports media talent - I couldn't resist sharing!

"Thanks to the emergence of NBC Sports Network and CBS Sports Network, ESPN finally has cable competition with actual money to spend.
It's been a long time coming.
Television talent is celebrating like never before because multiple bidders drives up sports media salaries. Instead of ESPN being able to tell you to take its offer or leave for the cable hinterlands, there's the potential that sports media success can come from cable off the ESPN networks.As I've watched the Jim Rome promotions air a billion times a day during the NCAA Tournament, it got me thinking, who are the most valuable commodities in sports media today? That is, if you made every sports media figure a free agent and allowed ESPN, CBS, and NBC to hire away talent, what would my first round draft look like?
Basically, who would you hire if you could stock a new network?"

I can make a strong case that Bill Simmons is the single most valuable talent that ESPN employs today.

In fact, I'll do it right now.

Clearly Simmons understands the Internet, he's wildly popular in social media, his podcasts are incredibly successful, the 30 for 30 series is genius, his column and books have been wildly popular, and Grantland represents a true creative risk. The kind of risk that ESPN doesn't typically take.

"When it comes to goalies, however, professional scouts do a terrible job of identifying talent. Sure, sometimes first round picks work out – eight of the league’s 30 most used goalies (26.7%) were drafted in the first round. Guys like Marc-Andre Fleury (1st overall), Kari Lehtonen (2nd overall), Roberto Luongo (4th overall) and Carey Price (5th overall) turned into the talents that the scouts thought they would. However, a lot of the league’s elite goalies were missed completely by the scouts.
In fact, fully 12 of the league’s 30 most-used goalies were either drafted outside the top-100, or never drafted at all. Pekka Rinne was drafted 258th overall in 2004; if today’s 210-pick system was in place that year he wouldn’t have been drafted at all. Also drafted after that 210 mark were Tim Thomas, Jaroslav Halak, Tomas Vokoun, and Evgeni Nabokov. Henrik Lundqvist went 205th overall in 2000. Miikka Kiprusoff was a fourth-round pick; Ryan Miller a fifth. Niklas Backstrom was never drafted; neither were Jonas Hiller or Antti Niemi."

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Hunter Shinkaruk really impressed me last summer when Hockey Canada held their try-outs for the 2011 Ivan Hlinka U18 hockey tournament. How the Medicine Hat Tigers offensive dynamo didn't make the final squad was somewhat of a mystery to me as despite not being eligible until the 2013 NHL Entry Draft, Hunter was constantly the most dangerous player on the ice amongst the forwards.

Many blistering shots will be taken. Many tantalizing saves will be made. Many devastating hits will be dished out. Many vigorous battles for loose pucks will be fought. Many pinpoint accurate passes will be delivered. Many savvy puck moves will be executed. Many coach tirades will fall on deaf ears.